The use of whole home surround sound and ubiquitous computing devices is becoming more and more common. Many new homes and offices are built fully wired, while many old homes and offices utilize various wireless systems. Many different ways have been introduced to allow users to interact with computing devices, such as through mechanical devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, etc.), touch screens, motion, gesture, and even through natural language input such as speech. Furthermore, many of these devices are further connected to remote computing resources, such as cloud-based services, that extend functionality afforded by the local devices.
As computing devices in homes and offices continue to evolve, users expect a more seamless experience when interacting with cloud-based services through local devices. One particular user experience concerns playback of streaming music received from cloud-services. One of the challenges for providing cloud-based services to home or office systems, such as streaming music, is how to effectively reduce user perceived latency and lag time.